I don't want to see the question go unanswered but at the same time don't have much information to offer.

In Device manager Root Hub basically refers to the physical USB ports while the controller refers to the drivers. Thus, all that's normal. When it comes to the number, are you sure you only have 3 total? Most newer computers also have front USB ports, so look around on the front panel, on the memory card reader (if you have one), etc...a fourth one should be there.

As to Vista not recognizing anything you plug in, the only thing I can think of is to plug in a flash drive and then go into Computer Management->Disk Management through the control panel...see if the flash drive is recognized there at all. If not you could try reinstalling Vista, but if it's a drive compatibility issue then the only solution would be to wait for Intel to release an update.

Hi, just read you notes on issues with usb ports on vista, i bought my son a presario f500 laptop and having great problems with usb ports not working, although when i go into computer management...then disk management.......the data bar drive is there ....but in my computer is not showing any icon... it sounds like the bar boots in,its lit up all the time.... but no way of finding it....please help.

must be a problem with the Compaq presario f500 cause i'm having serious issues with my usb ports... i've tried everything and keep thinking its a vista issue, but noone else with vista is having our haedaches... help, help helpGareth

I am having similar issues, but only with certain USB ports. I have an nForce 4 motherboard and none of the on-board ports will properly detect a USB thumb drive/hard drive/storage controller- they seem to work Ok for web cams and such.

I have two PCI USB addon cards (I have a LOT of USB devices) and the USB drives seem to work through there- and also through USB hubs connected to the cards.

I know the ports are good as they work flawlessly in Windows XP- which I reverted back to until they figure out the USB problem.

I have an Acer Aspire media edition with windows XP.AST660-EP821MSomehow I deleted the icon "removable disk J" from 'my computer'.Now the port I normally use does not work.In fact 2 of the 3 usb ports on the front panel do not recognize my memory sticks(both work perfectly on my laptop and are recognized by 1 front panel usb port)The device manager says all is well with installed ports & hubs.Is there another way to open my memory stick?Is there a way to put back the deleted icons on "my computer"?

Go into the Device Manager, right-click on the entry for the malfunctioning USB controller and see if you are given the option to enable the device. It may be it's just disabled, at which point it cannot be used but still reports full functionality without errors.

A second thought is that you may have hidden the drive letter in My Computer, but that it's still usable. Try entering the the drive letter into the address bar in My Computer (Ex: J:\ ) and see if it loads. It will typically be one or two letters after the last displayed drive letter.

A third possibility is a hardware malfunction, which can be caused by dust/dirt (use compressed air to clean the port out, if necessary), a loose wire (have you opened the case lately?), or aging equipment.

Finally, don't forget the old trick of uninstalling and reinstalling the device drivers...it may just be the odd glitch.

John

P.S. You may want to repost in the Windows XP of Computer Help forum since you're not running Vista.

John, I appreciate your suggestion. i tried both 1 & 2 without success.I'm a little scared to try suggestion 3. But here is some good news...This morning when I tried the devices again something strange happened.When I put the memory sticks into the front usb ports suddenly the icons for 'j' & 'k' appear on 'my computer' and the stick opens.But both icons disappear when I remove the memory sticks!!!At least now I can access my memory stick data so I am very happy!Thank you for the help and quick response-this site is great!!!

Optical (CD/DVD) drives, floppy/zip drives, and memory card readers will always show up in My Computer, regardless of if there's a disk in the drive. USB drives, on the other hand, will only appear when you have a readable device, such as a flash drive, plugged in. So what you're experiencing now is completely normal.

I provide IT support and have seen numerous Vista machines where suddenly when you plug any USB device it does not get recognized and prompts for drivers. I saw this occasionally in XP but not as much as in vista. There has to be a kernel glitch that affects the registry in conjuction with the USB root hubs. I am only guessing, I yet to find out a fix for it. Appreciate any feedback.

Ok, so I found out why vista has problems installing USB drives. Here's how to fix it:

1. In C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository I had two folders named "usbstor.inf" but each one had a different set of numbers attached to the end of the folder name. - could this be where part of the problem lies?

2. When i looked in my C:\Windows\inf folder i discovered the usbstor.inf and usb stor.pnf files were missing - this definitely had to be an issue.

Once I discovered these anomalies, I proceeded to copy the pnf and inf files from the most recently updated usbstor.inf folder to C:\Windows\inf. I then went back to the update driver wizard, pointed to the inf folder and what do you know but they all started working again.

I did this for my ipod and as soon as I reconnected it, it recognized it and worked immediately. This worked for my Vista Ultimate 64-bit hope it works for you.

...searching for the reason why my printer suddenly stopped working. I had tried EVERYTHING I know and I desperately started searching the internet. The printer could not be detected by the USB port - I have Vista. Finally, I found this post and your (noblemosby) solution worked for me!!! I am so happy I could cry, I can never thank you enough. THANK YOU!!!

After looking at your solution to this microsoft wonder I had a poke around my self. In my case all the files in the file store were present in the inf folder but it still not working. so as a test i copied all the usb files out and backed them up and moved the ones from the store in then tried again. This solved it all, Thanks alot

Hi,i tried doing what u said, but because of my lock of knowledge with computers, can you give me step by step help on how to fix it? like copying the usb file to the next? please im begging you i have a knew camera and would love if my usbport recognise it..

Great fix.. Thannks dude!!This fix should be posted at the top so that people can find it.. I think most people are looking for this answer.. Dont know why the inf/pnf files would be missing though.. vista sucks as always :s

I had the same problem that most of the people here, one day I wake up and all my usb port won't work at all... I tryed everyting that is on the web to solve this problem and I didn't have success... BUT searching I discovery that the problem was a update of microsoft, and this update is the responsible for all usb ports suddenly stop working. With this update, Vista can no longer find the drives for any usb device or it finds, but can't install! I just wanna share how I FIXED this annoying problem. I know that the problem is in a file in c:\windows\INF , but I don't know ecxacly which one.

So TO SOLVE this problem I just renamed the folder "INF" (C:\windows\INF) to "INFbkp" ( just made a backup), and I took the computer of a friend and copied the "INF" folder of his computer and placed in my computer (of course that I placed his "INF" folder in my c:\windows\). In other words, JUST COPY THE FOLDER "INF" OF A FRIEND'S COMPUTER AND REPLACE THE "INF" FOLDER IN YOUR COMPUTER. (Of course that you need take a friend's computer that have all usb ports working normally!!!).

Belive or not, that make all my usb ports work normally. IF A USB DEVICE STILL NOT WORKING, GO TO DEVICE MANAGER, YOUR DEVICE SHOULD BE THERE WITH A YELLOW MARK, OPEN HIS PROPERTIES, AND CLICK REINSTALL DRIVES, AND THEN CLICK FOR SEARCH THE DRIVES IN THE COMPUTER, AND PUT THE FOLLOW PATH: "C:\WINDOW\" AND CLICK INSTALL. IF POP-UPS A WINDOW SAYING THAT ISN'T SECURE TO INSTALL THE DRIVER, SELECT INSTALL ANYWAY.

Well, thats how I made my usb work again. Sorry for the bad english, I made the best I could.

I'm running Vista Ultimate x64 dual booted with XP x32. I knew that my USB ports all worked as I can confirm it in XP. I was puzzled as to why it wouldn't work in Vista.

After some investigating, I discovered a conflict. I had 5 USB Root Hubs for 4 pairs. Furthermore, I had 4 VIA Rev 5 or later USB Universal Host Controllers showing, and one VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller. Somehow (I don't remember) I discovered that the Enhanced controller wants all 8 ports, and each Universal controller tries for 2 ports.

I have a MSI VIA-based K8M800 board, with a ATI 2600 PRO AGP.

In the end, I disabled the VIA USB Enhanced Host Controller, which caused a root hub to disappear and my Logitech Rumblepad 2 to be installed. I can also plug in my LG VX8350 into any port.

I have been searching all over the net for a fix to this problem and have tried nearly every suggestion I found to no avail. I had to create an account on CNET just so that I could say thank you for figuring out what the problem was.

I simply disabled the enhanced controller on my PC and all the USB hubs (4 at back and 1 at front) all started working perfectly.

Though I admit I still don't fully understand why the enhanced controller caused the problem. I would appreciate more info (like where you read that the enhanced controller wants 8 ports)

I had looked everywhere for the solution to my USB problems in vista and I wanted to thank you guys for finding the solutions. I first tried the suggestion Noblemosby but it didn't seem to do the trick. Finally I performed the suggestion that Lucas Valentin mentions which is copying the INF file from another working pc and this worked!!

I have a HP Pavillion Laptop dv6-1030us. After about 2 months of working fine, I experienced the problem with the USB ports yesterday. My USB ports all of sudden stopped working. I have four USB ports. Two of them didn't recognize that anything was plugged into them at all. The other two recognized when something was plugged in, but the unknown device error was received when the PC tried to locate the drivers. I noticed that there had been some updated to Windows. I backed those out. Still had the same issue. I tried deleting the INFCACHE.1 file. Still the same problem. Finally, I shutdown the PC. Still the same problem. Finally, I shutdown the PC and unplugged and disconnected the power cable and waited about 15 mins before powering back up. This cleared the problem for me. We'll see if it comes back.

I have a HP pavilion dv4 with Vista 32. Windows stopped recognizing my Iphone via the USB port. I too shut down my laptop and disconnected the power cord and took out the battery then held down the power button to release any extra power, then waited about 15 min. I plug it all back up and tried it out and now it is recognizing my Iphone. Thanks

Open right click menu on the desktop and go to [Personalize] in the menu that pops up choose [Screen Saver].In that window click [Change Power Settings], Pick the power plan you are currently on and click [Change Plan Settings].In the new window choose [Change Advanced Power Settings] in the Power Options window open [USB Settings]then [USB Selective Suspend Suspend Setting] and set both options to Disabled and Click the [OK] button. It may requirea restart but this should take care of your problem with the usb device.

i did as you instructed and it worked fine - for a couple of days. And now I'm back to the same deal where my laptop sees USB storage devices but will not recognize them. I've tried several different external hd's and thumb drives with the same results. Other things such as external wifi devices all work okay. only storage devices experience the problem.

I had an issue where my front USB ports wouldn't work unless i disabled the USB Root Hub or the VIA Enhanced USB Controller that governed the USB 2.0 flow, but this made my flash drive transfer speed really slow.

To add to the confusion, the ports worked in XP but misbehaved when I switched to Vista.

I did some research on USB headers, and learned that only 4 wires are needed per port so I decided to disconnect the S-GND wire from both pairs (the fat black ones), leaving the +5V, USB+/-, and GND connected. When I closed up the box and powered up my machine, my game controller and flash drive connected without issue.

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